How to Light the Theater

Introduction
Have you ever seen a Broadway show and you think to yourself, “Wow that's so cool” in regards to the lighting display? If you have ever wondered how all of these effects come to life, look no further. We will explore an "illuminating" journey about how to prepare lighting for a show, starting with the stage as an empty shell to finishing with a vivid brilliant show. This will include defining lighting, creating effects, budgeting, planning your lighting choices, and programming, and placement. 

What Is Theater Lighting 
Theater lighting is what gives you light on stage and creates the mood of the show.  Walking into any theater on a show night is a magical feeling.  Lighting gives that effect. How did they do this?  Different effects with different types of light and colors make the show come to life.  According to Max, “The art of lighting the stage consists of putting light where you want it and taking it away from where you don't want it.” As Max said this is what creates the show and brings it to life with lighting. Lighting can bring many different textures and effects to the space depending on the equipment and the scene. According to “The Importance of Stage Lighting:”

Stage lighting is one of the most important aspects of any play. Even with a great script and exceptional actors, poor stage lighting could end up ruining everything. A play is not like a book where the reader has to use their imagination to bring the story to life. The production crew is responsible for bringing the story to life. 

Lighting is what changes your scenes, props, and sets but lighting is making the effect of where you are. For example, when using UV light, the purple-looking light makes different reflective surfaces glow when the UV light shines on them. For a more dramatic impact, one could use a bolder color such as red as a detailed effect. Making these choices is a process that takes a lot of planning. 

How to Choose Between Different Types of Lighting 
While there are many different lighting choices, there are primarily three that are traditionally used. These are what lights you should know about. “Learn Stage Lighting” recommends “spot fixtures, wash fixtures, and beam fixtures” to use for traditional stage plays. All of these lights serve different purposes. Wash lights give a general wash; some of the fixtures that can do this job are ellipsoidals and par cans. Cyc lighting is another example of wash lighting. These are needed to create the tone for your show by changing the color of your scene.  Another fixture is spot fixtures which can include multi-purpose lights or ellipsoidals and are zoomed in on the person or prop. Follow spots are one example. These are more condensed onto a person or prop. The last cool fixture is a beam fixture; these are similar to spot fixtures as they both are more zoomed into a person but a beam fixture covers more area that a spot fixture. 

Knowing your space is the first step in deciding which type of lighting will work best for your production. To choose your lights you first need to figure out where to put them in your space. Once you know your space you can choose how many ellipsoidals, movers, washes, and all fixtures you want. It's time to finish planning and make a lighting plot.

Placement 
While you might have a general idea of your plan you can't get started until you make a lighting plot. According to Hughesie:

 A light plot is the primary document used by the lighting designer to communicate where lighting equipment is to be placed and what type of equipment is to be used for a production. The light plot is generally created after the scenic design has been mostly finalized and plotted. The light plot will contain information regarding the orientation and spacing of equipment in relation to other equipment and scenery pieces. 

When deciding placement, there are a few things you have to think about as the designer which include angles, where from in the space, and what limits there is for power wattage. When the light plot is finalized and your lighting plot is made with all info including patch number, color, and focus point. 

The next step is giving it to the electrician so the electrician is aware you get to start hanging and focusing your lights. After your lights are where they say on the light plot you will need many cables to connect your lights. There are 3 different types of connectors: Edisons, Stage pin, and Dmx. With these connectors, you will need to run them to your dimmer box which will then go to the board. In addition, with your lights, how do you choose the right angle to shine light? It is always going to depend on your scene and what the script calls for, but the script is not the Bible. If your scene calls for fire, you will need an uplift at an angle and an effect on it to flicker so it creates that mood. Other things may include backlight or sidelight which connects to multi-point lighting when you start lighting your person. Now that your lights are hooked up to your system it's time to start patching them and to start programming.

How To Light A Person
One part of programming is lighting a person for the show. One of the four main ways to light someone is called multi-point lighting. Multi-point lighting includes a lot of different angles, depending on what the director is wanting or what the script calls for. For example, if you're lighting a group of people you should have a single light on each person across the stage making sure it's even across. When it's someone's turn to speak you highlight them with a backlight to make them stand out. This is called 2-point lighting. If you are lighting a person in the house or on the apron of the stage you might need to use a follow spot which is your single-point lighting. Your 3-point lighting is side light and a backlight and that evens everything out so it's not washed out by lights. Finally, there is 4-point lighting which is just how it sounds front left right and behind you. Bigger theaters use this because they have enough equipment to light all the way around and make sure it's even and not spotty this is helpful when your person is facing a side and not the audience but you can also do this with 3 point lighting if you have the person cheat out (turning your body) so more of the audience can see you.

How To Light The Set
Another part of programming is lighting the set for the show. How can you light the set without making actors glow in set lighting and make shadows? To create a lighting plan for the set, You need to consider a plan that enhances the show and does not distract from the show.  To set this we need to dive deep into the show, what time period are we in, is it nighttime or daytime? To do this we can't have multiple suns there needs to be 1 sun of warm lights through a window to signify the sun. You pick your focal point and keep it there so it doesn't keep changing the look of your set. To light the set we need an evenly lit and even wash throughout the set. You can now start lighting the action in the set. This can include actors, props, and adding more but if it gets too heavy take out and don't use more to cover up other mistakes. If you take out lights and start from scratch you will have a cleaner look. To make it look as if there is something happening outside and you have trees you can use gobos which is a metal disk that has different cuts in them to project a logo, name, and images. But for placement it all depends on the designer it could be for electrics to catwalks but the angle of the light needs to hit the person on the right view of the person which means do you want an uplight on the person a side light a front light or a downlight on to the person which creates different effects to your scene. 

Budget
Let's talk about money. How much does it cost to buy a light? This is really depending on your space and what you're looking for. The nicer lights can run up to $10,000 or more but if you're looking for something to get the job done look for bundles of wash lights that can get your stage lit for only $5,000 for 20 lights. Another plus side to that is it comes with cables and clamps, a really good deal. A good budget would be around $15,000 to $20,000 to start off. You can easily get to more expensive lights but you need to keep in mind what else you need because light boards are $1,000-$50,000 for a lightboard that can handle the space you're looking for, which is very expensive (“Stage Lighting Store”). You need so much stuff just to light a theater that you also need a power source that will let you run that much equipment.

Programming
Programming lights takes time and practice to learn how to do but now you will have your magic sheet and lighting plot handy which makes it a lot easier to program. To go over a basic board The ETC Ion light board is one of the best intermediate controllers.  With this controller you have the advantages of effects, sub-masters, and infinite cue lists. For example  “A  lighting cue list is the full collection of a production’s lighting cues. Sometimes referred to as a cue sheet, these lists encompass the entire production and every lighting cue needed to tell the story. Each sheet includes concise notes specifying the details of each cue” (“How To Create a Lighting Cue Sheet”). With your cue sheet and your list of cues, it's now telling the story.

Conclusion
If you bought your tickets to a Broadway show while you read this, I hope you now appreciate what we do behind the scenes.  For a show to come to life, it all begins with lighting. Now you know the in and outs of defining lighting, creating effects, budgeting, planning your lighting choices, and programming and placement. What an "illuminating" journey about how to prepare lighting for a show, starting with the stage as an empty shell to finishing with a beautiful LIT show. 

 
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